Marvel’s upcoming Black Widow film will focus on what events influenced Natasha’s decisions in Avengers: Endgame. Marvel Studios’ Hall H crowd at San Diego Comic-Con was treated to a massive slate introducing Phase 4 of their cinematic universe. Marvel Studios head, Kevin Feige, dropped an array of announcements on the enthusiastic crowd, covering everything from new shows coming to Disney’s streaming service, Disney+, to brand new sequels and standalone MCU installments - including the first film to make its grand debut in Phase 4.

Previous Avengers films have subtly set up Natasha’s backstory; mainly that she was taken as a child and trained in a Russian spy program known as the Red Room. She later ended up going rogue and landing on SHIELD’s radar, later leading to her teaming up with the Avengers. Unfortunately, Black Widow’s solo film will not be tackling the Red Room narrative, but filling the gap between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War. The film is currently in production, but Marvel Studios was able to share some footage from the upcoming film at SDCC, along with introducing the full cast and unveiling the film’s villain, Taskmaster.

Following the stacked panel, Screen Rant was able to chat with one of the film’s biggest players, David Harbour. When asked about his take on the script, Harbour said, “It’s great. Because you get to go back a little bit in time with her, right? And you get to really explore these events.” He went on to add that one of the more intriguing parts of the story was, after knowing about her demise in Avengers: Endgame, that “you get to explore how she got there. How she got there to make that choice.” Another key part of the narrative is his character and Natasha’s relationship, and he explained that they’ve, “known each other for a long time, and that relationship plays into all the stuff that’s come beyond.” He concluded that the movie serves as the perfect way to bring her character arc to a close, saying, “The great thing about knowing the end of an arc is that you get to go back and either foreshadow or play again the story […] it’s very joyful for the fans to see these emotional moments or these prepped character beats come in at times.”

Harbour’s character has been described as the Russian Captain America, otherwise known as Red Guardian. Though not a well-known name in the comics, Red Guardian was introduced in Avengers #43 in 1967. His creation spawned during the Cold War, brought about by the Soviet’s desire to create their own version of Captain America. Considering his origin, it’ll be interesting to see how the narrative explores his and Natasha’s modern-day relationship, especially considering the period in which the Black Widow film takes place.

Natasha’s story has always been an interesting one that many are excited to finally see brought to the big screen. Even though the film seemed oddly timed at first, following her death in Avengers: Endgame, knowing now that the narrative will help bring her arc to a close serves as a nice form of closure for the Avenger. Not only that, but Black Widow will be an exciting way to kick off Marvel’s next phase of highly-anticipated MCU features.

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